


Her Jane

by thevibrantruby



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 1980s, Action/Adventure, Drama, Eventual Romance, Family Drama, Hawkins National Laboratory, Laboratories, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:15:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25043017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thevibrantruby/pseuds/thevibrantruby
Relationships: Becky Ives & Terry Ives, Eleven | Jane Hopper & Becky Ives, Eleven | Jane Hopper & Terry Ives, Martin Brenner & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Martin Brenner & Original Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	1. Prologue

May 1974

Terry places her hands firmly on the steering wheel and takes a few deep breaths, trying to calm the violent trembling of her hands and contemplating whether or not she was going to go through with her plan. She had given herself a pep talk during the drive, but it didn’t seem like it was doing anything to calm her nerves. She decides to park at the very front of the Hawkins Laboratory building, deciding it’d be best to pose as an employee in hopes that she would appear less suspicious.

She was determined to do whatever it would take to get her child back and protect her from who she deemed to be the scum of the earth: Dr. Martin Brenner. He had taken absolutely everything from her: her freedom, her happiness, her dreams, her Jane. 

Jane. 

Her Jane.

Just the mere thought or her daughter stirs up an unbearable sorrow that makes her want to cry from the depths of her soul.  
Jane wasn’t going to be an experiment like Terry had become, not if she could help it. Terry would give Jane a childhood that Terry and her older sister Becky had always wanted for herself, but it seems as though those cards weren’t meant to be dealt their way. 

Terry takes another deep breath before quickly glancing in the mirror to brush the few stray strands of her in her face and grab her leather purse. Inside of the purse was a gun that her and Becky had inherited from their Aunt. Violence was never inherently in Terry’s nature, no, but once she learned the truth about Hawkins’ and Dr. Brenner’s wicked agenda and all of the conveniently timed cases of “missing persons”, “illnesses”, and even deaths, she realized that playing nice would get her nowhere.

No more thinking, Terry, you’ve made your decision.,” Terry says in a final attempt to console her wracking brain. It’s time to go in. Whatever happens, you’re doing it for Jane.

Terry steps out of her car and walks into the building with a brisk stride, much like the other polished women who show up to their job. Her plan is to blend in with the rest of the female employees, find the room where Jane is contained and retrieve her, rush out, and take her home, where she rightfully belongs. There is a security guard standing several feet from the building’s entrance, a young looking officer with brunette hair. The three women in front of Terry wore miniature, rectangular-shaped ID badges on their clothing, but Terry figured if she just continued walking without as if she knew where she was going, there’d be very little chance she’d be questioned. Unfortunately, Terry underestimated the guard’s seemingly careful attention to detail. 

“Ma’am, can I see your badge?” the guard asks. He doesn’t seem to be upset.

Terry’s body is frozen in motion and her brain freezes for the time being. She stands in front of the guard, her eyes fixed on him. He’s asking nicely, Terry thought to herself, but she knew that if she confided in him that she wasn’t a real employee, she would be dragged out of the building, or worse if she told him why she was there. She couldn’t take any chances, and she knew that she had to let everyone in the building know NOT to step in her way.

Suddenly, Terry’s entire body begins to shake again in fear, sadness, and pure anger.

With unsteady hands, she reaches down into her purse, retrieves the gun, and points it at the guard.

“Stay back,” she commands, rather quietly and giving off the impression that she was unsure of herself.

“Stay back!!!” Terry yells again, and waves the guns across the audience of the now terrified Hawkins Lab employees. Onlookers immediately create their distance and retreat toward the walls, some even managing to escape the building. 

The officer attempts to reach for his gun, but before he can, Terry impulsively pulls the trigger and shoots the guard in the shoulder, causing him to violently crash to the ground. 

Trying not to take much time to think about her next move, Terry turns away from the fallen guard and abruptly makes her way through the crowd. Terry still has the gun in her hand, and it seems as though anyone who had been in her way not even a moment before had miraculously paved a clear path for her to continue her journey through the building.

Terry conceals the gun in her purse and rushes up a small flight of stairs, darting her head around to make sure no one is following after her. As she reaches the top of the stairs, she can hear a voice on the intercom: “Hawkins employees, beware: there is an active shooter in the building. Again, there is a shooter in the building. The active shooter is female, about 5’4, long brunette hair, wearing a brown suit. If you see this individual, please find the nearest place of shelter and DO NOT MOVE.”

They all know what I look like now, she thought. No point in pretending like I work here anymore. 

Terry removes the gun from her purse and tucks inside her pockets, fitting tightly around her waist before opening the door to the second floor.

With her mind now clouded with racing thoughts, Terry moves at an even quicker, forceful stride. She forces her way through the doctors, nurses, and lab assistants occupying space on the floor. Everyone who seems to recognize her screams in horror and flees from sight. She figured that if Hawkins’ employees were fearful enough for their lives to stay out of her way, she would have very little difficulty finding and retrieving Jane. 

“Jane? Jane???” Terry calls once the halls are clar, softening her tone. She doesn’t want to scare her daughter or give her any idea of the trouble her mother is in.

She wanders to a large, oak, colored door and peeks inside of the room, only to reveal a dark, empty room. Closing the door, she catches a blur of a multi-colored image in her peripheral vision, and instinctively snaps her head towards the view. 

Along the metal door frame is a small painting of a rainbow. Terry recalls the significance of rainbow at the lab during her time there as a test subject. 

Children. That means there’s children in that room, Terry thinks to herself.

This could be it.

Terry charges towards the room with the feeling of fear, sadness, and anger, quickly being replaced by relief and excitement.

She turns the knob to this door quickly and lets the door swing open.

And there she is, playing with another little girl with copper-toned skin and thick, long jet black hair.

Her Jane. 

Terry’s Jane.

Both girls bring their play to a halt and study Terry with curiosity in their eyes. 

As if on cue, all of the distress, fear, anger, and sadness that Terry had experienced for the past three years as a result of not having her daughter had been seemingly erased the very moment she laid eyes on Jane for the first time in what felt like years. Terry’s heart swells with joy, exhilaration and delight. Terry can feel the tears forming around the edges of her eyes at the thought of finally being reunited with her child.

“Jane!!” she cries, her voice loud again. She rushes toward Jane and kneels down on the ground, thrusting her arms toward Jane to take her into her arms.

But Terry’s new-found bliss comes to end all but too soon when she feels two pairs of cold, harsh hands grab a hold of her arms and lift her into the air, ejecting her from the room.  
It was almost as if someone had turned it off with the flicker of a light switch. 

The tears of joy that surfaced the outline Terry’s eyes were now flowing down her face as tears of utter sorrow and pain, as what might be her only opportunity to get Jane back had been stolen from her in just a blink of an eye.

Terry attempted to wiggle her way through the strong grasp of the two men, flailing her legs and wailing her way down the hall. But the men were unrelenting.

She tried to plead with the men. “Stop!! Stop!!! That’s my child!! She’s my child!!! She belongs to me!!!” But they were still unrelenting.

The men dragged Terry’s body to an “examination” , a room that Terry knew all too well. They flung Terry onto an examination table, and instantly began strapping her entire body. She knew what was coming the moment they placed her on the table. Electroshock. She had seen it happen to at least a handful of other test subjects during her college years. Terry continued to plead for them to let her go and let her see her child, but it was as if no one could hear. She knew they could, they were simply just choosing not too. Just like they chose not to listen to her all those times before.

Once her entire body was restrained, they placed a beaming bright auburn colored light above her face that made it hard for Terry to see clearly. However,even in the blur of the light and the cloudiness of her tears, she could still make out a face that was all too familiar.

Brenner.

He peered back at her with an eerily stolid, blank expression, almost as if he were completely immune to the emotion.

The medical assistant placed two heavy, black prongs against the side of each temple, and rammed a rubber piece inside of her mouth. Meanwhile, Terry is still pleading with them through her muffled cries.

That’s it.  
They won.

It’s over.

All Jane will ever be an experiment to him.

Without moving an inch, Dr. Brenner gives the command to his medical assistant to turn the machine on.

“450”, he says, apathetically, not once moving his eyes from Terry’s.

The assistant obliges, just as asked. And in a moment, Terry’s world changes.

The current courses through her body like a vicious wave. Her body feels like it’s on fire, and she jolts and jerks about, finding some way to escape from the excruciating pain she’s feeling. But it only lasts for a few seconds.

Eventually, she feels her body lose all its strength, and she lies there limpy, with now a montage of memories running through her mind.

Going into labor with Jane.

Birthing Jane.

Waking up after Jane’s birth.

The combination to the lock which held the gun.

Recklessly shooting the guard.

Finding the rainbow room.

Seeing Jane.

Being stripped of a lifetime’s worth of memories. 

As the minutes go by, the memories seem to appear faster and faster in her head.

Breathe.

Sunflower.

Rainbow.

3 to the right, 4 to the left.

450.  
And just as the absence of Jane left Terry feeling vacant all of these years, her entire spirit, soul, and being were now just vacant.

And she was left with nothing but those brief snapshots of memories, replaying in her head.


	2. Chapter 2

Terry Lynn Ives was born on a sweltering cold, stormy winter night in the weeks before Christmas 1951 in the Ives family home in Bloomington, Indiana. Years later, as young women, Becky told Terry that she was the first to hold her and welcome Terry into the world. Becky was only four and a half years old, but had assumed the responsibility of big sister and unofficial guardian from the start. 

Terry and Becky’s parents, Richard and Vera Ives, did everything they could to ensure their daughters had a hopeful future. From the beginning, Richard and Vera’s family backgrounds and aspirations, seemed to mirror each other, which is what ultimately brought them together. Both Richard and Vera came from big families who made their living as farmers. Richard nor Vera’s parents had any formal education, but both families valued education and provided all of their children with the support they needed to embark on their endeavors. Both Richard and Vera finished high school at the top of their senior class. And when Richard and Vera announced to their parents that they were accepted into Purdue University in the final years of the Great Depression, they celebrated their victories.

As you could guess, Richard and Vera met at Purdue University their freshman year of college; Richard pursued and Vera both studied biology, which was, of course, considered a strange choice of major for a woman during that time. However, like always, Vera’s parents were perhaps her biggest cheerleaders in her decision to study alongside a lecture hall filled with men. And it was in one of those massive lecture halls that Richard and Vera found each other.

Shortly after college graduation, the two were married, and several years after that, their children came along. Looking back at her early life, Terry thought her parents had the “perfect” story. It seemed as though they were simply made for each other, and it was seldom that Terry’s parents argued. Being scientists who spent their professional lives testing theories and finding solutions to the world’s mysteries, Richard and Vera instilled in their children the importance of standing up for what they believed in and questioning authority. This encouraged Terry’s interest in the sciences-natural sciences, earth science, and astronomy were Terry’s favorite branches of science to study and conduct research on. The Ives family were avid readers of popular science magazines such as Scientific American and National Geographic. Terry loved to open the pages of a National Geographic article on the solar system and brush her fingers through the vibrant, luminescent pictures of the then nine planets. She memorized all of the distinct characteristics of each planet: the planet’s size, the planet’s density, the planet’s distance from the sun, and the planet’s temperature. She always felt that the Earth couldn’t possibly be the only planet with living inhabitants.

There has to be life outside of Earth, I just know it! She would think to herself.

Although Terry’s interests in science and life outside of Earth was wildly encouraged and facilitated at home, the reception she received amongst her peers at school was entirely different. At school, she would gather with her friends during lunch and recess, and while all of the other girls preferred to talk about television, Elvis Presley, and school gossip, Terry elected to discuss her new findings on the presence of extraterrestrial life.

One day, Terry had had enough of her friends' dismissive treatment to her interests. 

Terry and her friends were sitting outside at their favorite lunch table, enjoying their usual chatter and banter. Terry would usually bring a copy of National Geographic or Scientific American along with her to keep herself entertained. It’s not that Terry was an introvert or even shy for that matter; she thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her friends and had a considerably large amount of friends. But as Terry got older and entered pre-adolescence, refused to waste her time on vapid conversation that did little to stimulate her mind.

Terry lifted her head up from that month’s edition of National Geographic to attempt to change the topic of conversation. 

“Did you guys know that there’s life on other planets?” she quipped after growing tired of the who’s-dating-who and “who-broke up with who” talk that frequented their conversations. She thrusted the magazine towards the group and pointing towards the article she was reading.

One of Terry’s friends at the time, Abigail, merely blinked at the page before gabbing the magazine and shoving it back at her.

“My gosh, Terry, is that all you want to talk about?” 

“Why yes, because all you ever wanna talk about are icky boys!!”

Abigail and the rest of the gang just scoffed and rolled their eyes. “What’s happened to you Terry? You used to be so much fun. At least we like real things and real people. Now all you talk about is your weird aliens and monsters. If you love them so much, why don’t you go marry one?”

Terry’s face frowned in anger and frustration. Terry stormed up to Abigail and nudged her way in front of the lunch table. “If you didn’t want to be friends with me, you should’ve just said so!” 

Terry snatched her lunch tray from the table and began to push her way through the crowd of pre-teens. But before she left the table, she turned around to face the group one more time.

“Here’s one more thing I thought I’d let you know” Terry said staring straight at Abigail now. “I saw your boyfriend Andrew around school with Carolyn last week!” The size of the audience grew over the last few minutes, and now a hoard of onlookers seemingly paused their lunch to watch the show, and waves of gasping, laughing, and murmuring reverberated through the crowd at Terry’s last remark. 

Terry stormed back into the building her eyes flushed tears, feeling upset, defeated and alone. 

Unfortunately, as perfect as life seemed at home, misfortune would only follow her back home, as life suddenly ceased to be flawless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Thank you for continuing to support my story! I'm sorry this chapter isnt very exciting, but I wanted to set up Terry's background and a little bit about her home life. I may be updating this chapter in the next few days, and will hopefully publish the next chapter by Friday!
> 
> I'm still very new to the Ao3 world, so please continue to leave Kudos, comment, bookmark, and even subscribe to my page if you like my story! I'd love to meet other writers :)


	3. Chapter 3

June 1962

Terry awakened to the sound of the resounding sound of Becky’s voice floating from downstairs. Terry slipped out of her and Becky’s bedroom, tip toes down the stairs and shuffled to the living room to meet Terry the door. But before she reached the floor, she stopped at the top of the stairs to assess the situation before making her way down. Terry could see Becky at the door talking to two men in black uniforms. The men’s voices were solemn compared to Becky’s frantic, distraught tone. Terry could make out that Becky’s face was flushed red, her eyes puffy, and her nightgown seemingly disbelieved. 

What’s going on? Why are the police here? Terry thought to herself. Something is wrong.

Terribly wrong. 

“I’m sorry, but I think you’ve made a mistake coming here,” Becky says to the uniformed men in an unsteady, trembling voice. “This must be a mistake. There’s something they can do. Isn’t there something they could do?!”

The taller, slender policeman took a step forward, placing a hand on Becky’s shoulder. “I’m sorry ma’am, but they were killed upon impact. When the paramedics came, they showed no vital signs.” Becky broke down in a heart-wrenching sob, and her body shook violently.

Oh my god. It’s mom and dad!

Terry almost tripped down the stairs. When she reached the floor, she rushed towards Becky and asked her what was wrong. Becky turned her head towards Terry, her tomato red face seeming even more puffy than it had been a mere few seconds ago. Becky’s eyes told Terry all she needed to know. All Terry could see in Becky’s face was sorrow. But this wasn’t the kind sorrow that terry felt when she broke away from friends of when her science teacher, Mr. Polska moved to Portland, Oregon. It was the deepest kind of sorrow that you could experience in your life. 

And in that moment, Terry knew that something terrible had happened to their parents before Becky or the policemen had a chance to tell her. 

Becky, remaining silent, grabbed Terry and held her close, almost as if she was afraid of losing her too. 

The shorter policeman with the mustache, who had been silent for the majority of the exchange with Terry, seemed to switch roles with the taller officer and spoke up.

“Are you the younger daughter of Richard and Vera Ives?” The policeman inquired to terry.

“I am,” Terry responded, her own voice trembling now. 

The police officer nods and continues in a soft, solemn voice. “Your parents were involved in a car accident on highway I-69. They were hit by another car coming from the opposite direction. The paramedics tried to do everything they could, but it was too late. I’m so sorry miss…” the officer’s voice seemed to trail off in Terry’s ears, and his words stung like applying rubbing alcohol on a fresh wound.

In a span of a few minutes, the Ives family joyful, picturesque lives had been ripped away from them by tragedy. Up until this point, Terry had never experienced anything as excruciating as this. 

The police officers continued drilling the girls with a slew of formal-sounding words, and explained that because they were still minors, the first appointed relative listed in their parents would now assume custody, and they would have to attend court to finalize the decision, and extra talk about how valuables and money would be dispersed. 

It all sounded like a massive speech that Terry could only translate as gibberish. 

She didn’t understand how this could have happened. They’d just seen them yesterday, their faces beaming down at the girls, as jubilant and lovely as ever. 

But it was over. All of it was over. In the upcoming years, the girls would have to go through their adolescence and young adulthood without the love and guidance their parents had so dearly provided them thus far. 

This was the beginning of a long journey of tragedies and triumphs. 

Terry couldn’t have known that this would not be the toughest tragedy she’d have to face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry this took longer than expected. Here’s chapter three of Her Jane. Please continue leaving Kudos/comments if you like the story! They really keep me going! ☺️


	4. Chapter 4

After the accident, Terry and Becky’s lives changed immediately. The police officers allowed the girls to spend the night with their next door neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Fernsby, an older couple whose generous litter of kittens compensated for their lack of children. The Fernsby’s were friendly people. They provided the girls with comfortable beds to sleep on for the night, but it was difficult for either of the girls to get sleep, especially Terry. In the morning, the police officers stopped by the Fernsby residence to collect the girls and report them to their new guardian: Shirley Jamison, also known as Aunt Shirley. Aunt Shirley was Vera’s rambunctious little sister, and the designated “black sheep” of the Jamison family. While Vera excelled in her studies and went off to attend Purdue, Shirley restlessly fought her parents, pleading with them to allow her to drop out of school. Much to the dismay of her parents, Shirley despised the idea of a formal education (although she was extremely bright), and merely thought of it as a classist system put in place to maintain socioeconomic disparities. Instead of dreaming of defying gender roles and becoming a female scientist, Shirley dreamed of becoming a renowned artist and traveling the world. After spending the first three years of her high school career feuding with her parents, Shirley took it upon herself to drop out of high school and moved to Hawkins, Indiana with her boyfriend Jerry. It wasn’t even two months later that Shirley discovered she was pregnant. The couple married and had a son, Benjamin, but their relationship quickly turned sour, as Jerry struggled with alcoholism and couldn’t seem to keep his eyes from wandering to other women. Years later, after leaving Jerry and Benjamin going off to Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Shirley was left alone to wallow in a hole of loneliness, depression, and anxiety. After all of the pain she endured from a volatile marriage, a hostile divorce, and becoming an empty-nester, Shirley had lost most of her interest in painting, but she would often push herself to create art. The doctors said that she was suffering from depression and an anxiety disorder, but Shirley refused those claims. She did, however, follow her doctor’s advice and took walks to the park to people watch, in hopes of finding inspiration for her art. Nevertheless, when Shirley was informed that she would be responsible for caring for her nieces, she was ecstatic to have something to live for. 

Aunt Shirley provided the girls with everything they needed: a home, food, and clothing, but not much more. The first week of living with Aunt Shirley was extremely quiet.

Quiet during meals.

Quiet when dropping the girls off to school.

Quiet when spending time together at home.

Quiet during walks in the park, and the painting excursions or picnics that usually accompanied them.

There were even a few times that she would ask to use the girls as painting subjects, and she would only have to take one quick glance, and that was all she needed to complete the portrait. Terry and Becky could even get up and play frisbee if they wanted to, and Aunt Shirley would barely even notice. 

The only time she wasn’t quiet was during severe weather. When there were violent thunderstorms, she would call to the girls 

To Terry, it almost seemed as though Aunt Shirley was simply incapable of being emotionally unavailable. Vera and Shirley had grown apart after Shirley ranaway from home, so growing up, Terry and Becky had only visited Aunt Shirley a handful of times, and everytime Vera and Shirley would go after each other’s necks, but, regardless, she was the only sibling that still resided in Indiana, so she felt that it was the best option to designate Shirley as the first potential guardian. 

Shirley spoke very little of her family, or even of her childhood in Bloomington. 

“Everyone wants to know what’s going on with me, but can never take care of their own shit. Go and grab that pack of cigarettes for me” Aunt Shirley would often respond, to kill the conversation altogether. Terry found Aunt Shirley to be so extraordinarily different from their mother, she often questioned if Aunt Shirley was biologically related to them, or if she’d been adopted. 

And that was the other thing. When she wasn’t painting, the one thing she did do was smoke. 

And Boy, did she smoke. 

Camel, Marlboro, Newport, you name it. 

Eventually, Aunt Shirley found herself a boyfriend, and Terry and Becky saw another side of Aunt Shirley that they never knew existed. It seemed as though the previously gloomy, detached, pessimistic part of her being had peeled off her skin, revealing a woman whose heart filled with school-girl jubilation and infatuation, and whose smile had beamed a ray of light brighter than the sun. 

With her new-found joy, Aunt Shirley seemed to have ignored her nieces even more than she had before, In fact, there would be plenty of days where she would go an entire day without even acknowledging either girls’ presence, and rush out of the door to explore the world with her beau. 

The day that Becky turned 18, she got in contact with a real estate agent, and spent the majority of her savings to rent the Ives’ childhood home.

“Why are you leaving Aunt Shirley’s?” Terry asked Becky late one night in their shared bedroom after Becky had revealed that she would be moving back in to the family home.

“I have to get the hell out of here. We have to get the hell out of here. It’s obvious that Aunt Shirley doesn’t give a damn about us, you know that. We’ve lived here for three years, and we barely know anything about her!” Becky continues, swinging her arm towards the bedroom door as if Aunt Shirley was standing right outside of it. “So I’m leaving. And you’re coming with me.”

Terry leaped up from her bed and sat up as straight as a board.

“What do you mean, I’m coming with you?!?” 

All of Becky’s complaints were true-Terry’s wasn’t going to argue with her on that. But, as emotionally absent and eccentric as Aunt Shirley was, she had given them all of the basic necessities. What was the point of leaving the home of a woman who’d given them all they needed to move out to live with her teenage sister, who’d only had $350 in her savings working as a waitress at the local diner? 

“Exactly what I said. You’re coming with me. I can’t let you live alone with Aunt Shirley. You’ll go crazy just like her!” 

“But you can’t just do this to me! You can’t just decide that you’re tired of your life and think it’s ok to uproot mine as if I don’t have a choice!I finally have friends at school that care about me.”

Becky brushed away Terry’s rebuttal with a swipe of her hand, almost as if she were brushing them out of her mind. “Terry, I’m not going to argue with you. You’ll still be at the same school. But it’s a done deal. You’re moving back home with me, and our lives are going to be happy again. I promise.”

Over a generous breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon the next morning (cooked by “mother-to-be” Becky herself), Becky broke the news to Aunt Shirley that the girls would be moving back into their childhood home, and that Becky would now serve as Terry’s legal guardian. 

Terry found Aunt Shirley’s response to be extremely nonchalant and distant, but, if she’d responded any other way, it would’ve been strange.

She looked up from the handheld easel she’d brought to the table to lock eyes with both girls for one second each. 

“Ok girls,” she responded, pulling her cigarette out of her mouth to exhale her most recent drag. “just take care, and be safe, alright? Make sure you take all of your things with you.” 

And that was it

No hug or kiss goodbye.

No “I’ll miss you.”

No “stop by when you have the chance.” 

Just a lousy, half-hearted statement. “Ok girls. Just Take care and be safe.”

And just as abruptly as the girls had been uprooted from their family home and sent to live with their aunt, they returned back to their childhood home. 

This was when Jane’s life really began to take off.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of my story! This story will focus on Terry’s background story. There will be more parts coming up, so if you like this story (I’m not exactly sure how many parts there will be yet, but I’ll writing as long as you guys Jeep reading!) Please feel free to leave some kudos and bookmark the story! :)


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